Former UN chief Kofi Annan has urged the Security Council to press for the return of half a million Rohingya refugees to their homes in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.Annan, who led the Myanmar government-formed ‘Advisory Commission on Rakhine State’ to probe the crisis, emphasised changing the law to restore citizenship to the Muslim minority population.
Annan was speaking at a meeting organised by the UK and France at the UN headquarters in New York on Friday. Representatives to the UN from Bangladesh and Myanmar also addressed the meeting.
The UN is weighing action on the issue. “I hope the resolution that comes out urges the Myanmar government to really press ahead and create conditions that would allow the refugees to return with dignity and with a sense of security,” Annan told reporters after a closed-door meeting with the council.
“They should not be returned to camps. They should help rebuild,” he said Annan said he was hopeful the Myanmar government would adopt the recommendations of his commission and bring stability to Rakhine.
“The international community is now beginning to put pressure on the military,” he said.
Without action “we are going to have a long-term festering problem” in the region that “can be very serious, down the line,” warned the former UN secretary-general.
Despite her unwillingness to restore citizenship to Rohingyas, Myanmar’s de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi has made assurances that the recommendations of the Annan commission will be implemented.
Over half a million Rohingyas have fled the border state of Rakhine since a military crackdown began on Aug 25.
About 400,000 other Rohingya refugees have been living in Bangladesh for the past few decades after fleeing persecution in neighbouring Myanmar.
The latest violence began on the day Annan’s commission announced its findings, as Rohingya insurgents attacked several border police outposts and a military encampment in western Rakhine state.
The commission had recommended restoring citizenship to Rohingyas and the repatriation of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. – BBC and agencies
